


Coming to Understandings

by Merfilly



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Canonical Character Death, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 01:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: In the aftermath of the entire debacle in the Council over Annekë, Obi confronts Qui... and it leads both women to a conclusion they needed to make.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Protecting Annekë](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7929784) by [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly). 



"Must you always be so confrontational with them?!" Obi could not hold back her temper now that they were alone, having sent the girl on up into the ship as they prepared to return to Naboo.

Qui swept her long hair back, gathering it back into the clip that normally kept it out of her way. Her face was just as thunderous, for having been balked, for the necessity of jumping back into the fray before she had made her point.

"Think for a moment, Obi, what it means if that truly was a Sith warrior we faced," Qui snapped back. "You can feel Annekë's power, especially now that she is beginning to shed the defensiveness that she wore while she dressed in boy's clothing! Would you prefer the Sith take her and shape her?"

Obi blinked in shock as that very real concern went straight through her. It did not dim her pain at Qui trying to cast her aside, but it did shred the anger she felt for Qui's abrasiveness toward the council.

"You still handled it poorly. They'll never give in, because you pointed up their fear was ruling them." Obi turned to go aboard the ship, only to feel her master reach out and take her shoulder, turning her back.

"You must see to it, Obi, that Annekë is trained, no matter what," Qui said, fiercely, and a cold chill ran through Obi.

"Master, that fight is yours," she said, half-pleading in her tone now. "I will submit to the trials, if they change their mind on that. I won't fight your choice on that, to be free to have the padawan you want."

Whatever Qui had been on the verge of saying changed, as she finally heard the nuances in her padawan's words, and realized how cruel and thoughtless she had been. "Obi, you are ready. More than… as I have been selfishly holding you back, to keep your companionship the only way I could." She brought her hand up, long fingers stroking into the short hair, before twining the braid with them. "I wronged you, by not telling you that, long ago."

Obi swallowed, her throat locking around words she had once said in a tipsy state, the words that had been ignored in the moment and never brought back to mention by Qui. She wound up wetting her lips, tongue darting out, and she noticed how Qui's eyes followed it, darkening briefly.

"We'll speak more on the ship, dear one," Qui said softly. "Go and lend a hand while I see that the Queen and her retinue are secure."

+++

Obi wasn't sure what to expect as she entered the cabin she was sharing with Qui. Annekë was tucked in with the handmaidens, who had taken to fussing over her since they had realized she was a girl and wanted to be able to be a strong girl like they were.

Qui looked up from studying something on a datapad, noted it was her, and turned the pad off, shifting to make room on her berth for Obi to join her. The padawan did, not certain of this at all, but then Qui put an arm around her shoulders, the larger robe settling close with all the scents that meant security to Obi.

"My dear one, you once said you loved me, beyond the love of a padawan. I put it down to your state that night, and dismissed it from my mind… for a time. Then, you began to truly grow into your confidence, to your maturity, and I found myself wondering, often, if you still felt that way.

"Yet you gave no sign, and I knew you were both pursued and pursing others among your peers, to include that rake of an Alderaanian," Qui said. "And so, I tamped down on my feelings in all ways but one. I kept you close, my padawan, on this excuse or that, when Plo would ask why I had not recommended you to the Trials."

"You… have feelings for me, Master?" Obi asked, just to be certain she was understanding correctly.

"I know that it is untoward, frowned upon, but yes. I have held strong feelings for you for several years now," Qui answered. "I hope this does not distress you. I can keep them in che—"

She got no further, as Obi took the initiative to turn and kiss that sensuous mouth as she had dreamed a million times in the last eight or nine years. After a moment's surprise, Qui was kissing her back, and nothing further needed to be said for a time. What little passed between them merely set the boundaries, as each gave the other full measure of desire and love alike.

+++

Obi-Wan Kenobi, recently turned twenty-five years old, padawan for twelve of those years to a wonderful woman, had found the highest peaks of joy in just the last few nights. Now, collapsed with her master's body cooling in her arms, she knew the depths of loss as never before. She had not felt this hollow when Cerasi died. She had not been this lost while trying to help Qui recover from Tahl's death, during that long year on Mandalore.

All she wished in this moment was that she had taken the blade. She hoped that the Sith warrior had suffered in the deathblow she had dealt. She wanted to scream and rage like no Jedi ever should.

How could the Force be so cruel, to offer her such love and take it away? How could it make her keep living, half-alive, her soul to burn on the pyre as fully as Qui's body would?

She grieved, tears falling on the face that was serene in death. She had no idea how long she was there, or even who it was that came for her, bringing her out of the depths of Theed. There was a fog all around her, one that only deepened when she recalled Qui's words.

_You must see to it, Obi, that Annekë is trained, no matter what._

"You knew, didn't you," Obi whispered as she kept vigil beside the pyre, long after the others had left.

She did not move, not until her new padawan came and tentatively reached for her hand, trying to bring her out of the pain.

For better or worse, Obi would have to live up to that final promise, to care for this girl, and see her to Knighthood. That she would do so out of duty was a foregone conclusion. Obi-Wan Kenobi could not fail her master's dying request.


End file.
